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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27756607">We accept</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnselaJonla/pseuds/AnselaJonla'>AnselaJonla</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>HFY [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 21:27:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,744</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27756607</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnselaJonla/pseuds/AnselaJonla</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A story written for the Humanity Fuck Yeah subreddit (r/HFY).</p>
<p>"I am here, as you so politely requested," the human said in the perfectly accentless galactic basic of a translator device, "to explain why Humanity has been waging war against one of your member races, the Hyorkans."</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>HFY [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1600498</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>We accept</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The human strode into the council chamber, crossing to the speaker's podium with long, swift strides. At slightly over six feet in height, he was one of the taller species in there. Still, he did not look impressive to many of the representatives present, as he lacked the natural weapons and armour that many of them boasted. Blue cloth decorated with silver metal on the shoulders covered dark brown skin, and a dusting of short brown fur covered his rounded head. A strip of white on his breast identified him as J. Rhodes, known to the council as a Human warrior of some skill.</p>
<p>"I am here, as you so <em>politely</em> requested," the human said in the perfectly accentless galactic basic of a translator device, "to explain why Humanity has been waging war against one of your member races, the Hyorkans."</p>
<p>The chamber shifted, fabric rustling and metal clanging as this being openly admitted to what had been known for some time: that one of their own members was being attacked by an upstart civilisation previously unencountered by any other race.</p>
<p>"One hundred years ago humanity was barely beginning to explore the stars. We had not left our solar system yet, hadn't even put a single human on any of the other planets inside it. We were, by your standards, infants. Young, inexperienced and, most importantly, <em>sentient</em>. Your own laws say we were to be investigated, monitored and allowed to develop, until we reached the point where we had a proven FtL drive of our own design. Only then would one of you approach us, to welcome us into the galactic community.</p>
<p>That is not what happened. The Hyorkans found us first. The records we seized from them show that their scouts found us during a period we call the First World War, a violent and embarrassing part of our history, when millions of men were killed in a conflict that lasted just four years, in ways that we had not dreamed of before that time. We were primitive even by our own standards when the Hyorkans found us.</p>
<p>What was their response to this? Was it to abide by your rules, and leave a monitoring station in our system, or to make periodic visits to observe us? To let us develop and grow into a spacefaring species and eventually join our neighbours in the stars? No, it was to return with a battlefleet over a century later, to claim the resources of Sol for themselves!</p>
<p>On 13 April 2024, the Hyorkan battlefleet entered Earth's orbit. No one noticed. No one was looking at the stars that day. Earth was still separated into many nations at that time, but we were in a period of peace, and of not just national, but <em>worldwide</em> mourning. A much-loved national leader, who'd held her position for decades, for longer than any of her predecessors, had died of old age, and the world was united in grief.</p>
<p>And it was in this time of mourning that the Hyorkans opened fire on our people! A defenceless world, unaware of any threat, unknowing of the existence of other sentient races, and we were under attack! Pillars of light illuminated major cities before they suddenly vanished from existence. <em>Millions</em> of humans dead in an instant!</p>
<p>The Hyorkans had the gall to demand our surrender. To tell us that in mourning our "assassinated leader" we were weak, deserving of death or slavery. To order us to bow down to them in order to spare a randomly selected half of our population. And that we would not stand for.</p>
<p>At any other time, the initial strikes would have caused great damage to our leadership. Three of the cities hit were the capitals of some of the most powerful nations on Earth, and the leaders of those nations usually resided there. Not then, not that day. They had left their residences to join the final farewell to their compatriot, and the Hyorkans had spared the city where she lay in state, awaiting burial with those who came before her.</p>
<p>Our answer was swift. We responded not with meek compliance to the demands made upon us, but with fire. Every missile that could be fired at the Hyorkan fleet in low orbit <em>was</em>. The majority of these were conventional warheads, simple chemical explosives detonated by proximity or contact with their programmed targets.</p>
<p>These would not have been enough on their own. We know this now, and we suspected it then. For a long time our fiction had speculated on the existence of alien races, and the technology they might possess. It was commonly accepted that any race capable of travelling through the stars, if they did in fact exist, must have some kind of energy shielding.</p>
<p>But shielding can, our theories stated, be overloaded. And that while it could be done with conventional payloads, there was something far more effective, even in our primitive arsenal. <em>Nuclear</em> weapons, ones we stockpiled but never dared use on each other after the initial demonstration of their lethality, were the first wave fired at the Hyorkan fleet. Hundreds upon hundreds of miniature suns flared in the sky that day, bursting first against the shields of the threatening ships, then against the undefended hulls.</p>
<p>Not a single Hyorkan sailor survived that lethal counterattack. The ships were hardly in better shape, but enough of them remained. Enough for what, you ask? To study, is the answer. We studied the technology we recovered. We reverse engineered our first FtL engine from the Hyorkan design. We mastered anti-gravity technology. We made our own shield generators, better than the ones we copied. We experimented with weapons, with space fighters, with ship designs. We learned, we built, we improved. In just ten years we had a fleet of our own, under the flag of the United Earth Nation. Hundreds of ships, outfitted with technology equal to or better than that of those who'd so cruelly attacked us.</p>
<p>And then, once we had a fleet of our own, we struck back.</p>
<p>The Hyorkans never considered the possibility of losing. They never thought we'd be able to destroy an entire battlefleet with our primitive technology. They had no contingency plans for that eventuality, no locks on their navigation records. The swiftness of their destruction prevented them from purging their computer systems. We had their entire navigational database. Colonies, outposts, space stations, everything was listed for our convenience.</p>
<p>We have been merciful in our attacks! We have <em>never</em> struck a purely civilian target! We have never preyed on supply convoys, on medical centres, on farms or energy plants! We give the Hyorkans chance to evacuate those who wish to live, to flee before we destroy their homes! In this we are better than them!</p>
<p>Yes, we have destroyed ships, we have attacked cities, and we have shattered space stations and asteroids to dust! And we continue to advance, even as I stand here before you! We will not rest until we have had the chance to make a similar offer to the Hyorkan leadership as their battlefleet made to us: surrender, and acknowledge us as your betters, and never raise a hand to us again, and we will leave you in peace from that day forward!"</p>
<p>The human stood on the podium, staring up at the ranks of the council members. He did not flinch at the various displays of aggression being directed at him. His eyes were locked on a sole figure, sat in the first row, the Hyorkan representative. After a few moments of silence the human turned on the spot and stepped down from the podium.</p>
<p>Cries of outrage followed the human out of the chamber. Several beings demanded he return to the speaker's podium, to answer their questions, to explain his species' actions further. He ignored them all, and the large doors boomed shut behind him.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Four weeks after Colonel Rhodes' address to the council, UENN <em>Queen Elizabeth II</em> entered the fringe of the Hyorkan home system with her escorts. The flagship of Humanity's fleet began a slow approach into the system, and the remnants of the Hyorkan navy moved to intercept. They didn't expect to survive the encounter, just to delay the humans until the emperor and his cabinet could flee from Kelva, their home planet, to one of the remaining colony worlds.</p>
<p>The fleets manoeuvred into position, their side armament facing towards the enemy and their shields interlocking. The Hyorkan formation was ragged with great gaps in their shields, the crews unused to working together, but against any other opponent it would be sufficient. The UENN formation was crisp and practiced, their placement precise and their shields meshed so well that not a single particle of dust could have found a gap. Missile ports slid open, and energy weapons began to warm up.</p>
<p><em>"To all United Earth Nation Navy ships,"</em> began a broadcast from Kelva. It echoed through the bridge of the <em>Queen Elizabeth II</em>, put on speaker by her chief comms officer. <em>"Cal'Kantar's body cools at my feet, his blood dries on my knife, and his hearts were crushed in my own claws.</em> I <em>am Emperor Hilo'jardan of the Hyorkan people. On behalf of my people, of the brave Hyorkans preparing to make a final stand against you knowing that it will be their deaths... I surrender. I acknowledge that my predecessor's actions against your people and planet were wrong, and I admire your tenacity in coming out from such an event stronger than before. I hope that his death is restitution enough for his crimes, and that this war between our people will end here and now.</em></p>
<p>
  <em>I implore you to accept this surrender, to end this trail of death and destruction. I want to plot a new course for the Hyorkan race, one that complies with galactic law, and that has Humanity and Hyorkan walking together."</em>
</p>
<p>The two fleets hung in the darkness of space as the message ended, poised to attack. The hearts of the Hyorkan crews seemed to stop as they waited for Humanity's response to the message. Would the answer come in a hail of fire, or would it be with words and acceptance?</p>
<p>After a few tense moments the human energy weapons powered down, their missile ports closed. The fleet's thrusters fired as one, changing its course to one that would take it out of the system. No transmission was needed. <em>'We accept your surrender'</em></p>
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